It also helps that the show is based on a graphic novel (of the same name), written by Shamik Dasgupta, because the worldbuilding in The Village is exquisite. We don’t just see a mutant monster lunge to kill a person, but also see them pick apart the corpse to feed his brothers. Preethisheel Singh D’Souza’s makeup artistry and Rembon Balraj’s production design are phenomenal in a show that deals so often with bloody mutated creatures and abandoned villages with Demogorgon-like trees, a premise that could’ve easily become tacky. But the technical team ensures we glue our eyes on the screen with every slime and splatter of blood.
There’s also enough originality in the comic’s base material to keep us engaged, even if it begins with an unsurprising beginning— a family of four (played by Arya, Divya Pillai, Baby Aazhiya and a cute beagle) gets lost in the isolated forest roads of the spooky Kattiyal village, while on a road trip. Arya plays Gautham, an exhausted city doctor who gets some help from good-hearted village men Sakthi (Aadukalam Naren), Karunagam (Muthukumar) and Peter (George Maryan), who brief him on Kattiyal’s horrors — both literal and metaphorical. Kattiyal’s blood-soaked history involves a painful story of caste-based land-grabbing and discrimination. Rau and the graphic novel’s ingenious use of gothic horror to speak about religious fanaticism is an interesting touch that provides a few arresting images. The series keeps challenging our notions of goddesses and rituals, by posing uncomfortable questions — the peak of which culminates in episode 5, leaving you stirred.
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